The draw of an Independent accountancy firm over a national

Four reasons why Pippa Hawkes, Director, BSN Associates, believes young professionals who are looking to qualify as a well-rounded chartered accountant should consider applying to independent firms. 

Variety of work

The breadth of experience on offer in an independent firm is far greater than working for larger practice. For instance you can have exposure to bookkeeping, VAT, statutory accounts preparation, audit and corporation tax. This ultimately helps you to shape a good opinion of what kind of work you prefer doing, more day to day accounting services for clients or more focus on year end services.

The variety of work will also extend to a varied client portfolio which may typically consist of different sizes of business from sole traders to larger SMEs in a number of sectors and different types of business. This helps you to build an appreciation of different types of business model and can inform decisions about where you may want to specialise in the future, for example, healthcare clients or the third sector.

In comparison larger firms will provide you with some excellent exposure to international corporations, public interest or listed companies and well known household names. However, you may only see part of the business or work with a certain team at the company.

This also dictates the level of interaction you will be able to have with the client teams at the companies you work with. Typically in an independent firm you will be dealing with the MD, CEO and FD, as compared to the accounts team in larger organisations. This allows you to interact with the key decision makers of the business and often they really value the input you have into their business and you see the direct impact of the work you are completing.

Training

One of the main benefits that I really see for our trainees at BSN is the breadth of experience you gain in an independent firm whilst completing your exams. Typically you will be seeing day to day the practical application of the modules you are studying at college. This really helps place the theory into context and can enable more success with the exams.

At BSN we provide the same training and study leave support as the larger firms but exams tend to be more spread out so they are manageable. Our trainees will normally take 2 exam sittings at a time, reducing the stress and anxiety that you could feel if you are training within a larger firm doing a whole level suite of exams in one go.

Similarly, there aren't as such stringent exam fail and sacking policies in smaller firms given the independent firm has usually invested more in their trainees and really value their work experience as well as their exam success rate. Plus there is not such a large intake to allow large levels of attrition.

Another success we have seen for our trainees is for those that struggle to afford the higher tuition fees at university. The smaller firm allows you to earn money straight out of school or college and ultimately qualify as a chartered accountant more quickly than if you had completed an undergraduate degree as well. Plus no need to accumulate large levels of student debt to do so.

Career Progression

Working for an independent accountancy firm allows you to have honest and frank discussions with your employers, you can often steer your career into the areas you want it to take.

For example, we had a trainee who started by studying AAT and working in our bookkeeping and management accounts department. She then progressed to gain the ACCA qualification working within the audit department. After spending some time experiencing the year end general practice work, she discovered she didn't really enjoy this side of things. Her preference was to have a portfolio of clients that she looked after from a day to day accounting services perspective but also complete their statutory accounts and corporation tax ready for the auditors to work through. BSN were happy to shape this role for her and has led to a great level of job satisfaction for that individual.

Your level of responsibility in a small firm can grow quickly. In the right independent dynamic firm you can work your way up to practising certificate/responsible individual status fairly quickly without having to do lots of business development and jumping through lots of internal hoops.

Speaking from my own experience, we believe in presenting a clear career path for our staff that stretches their personal development but is ultimately achievable. A prime example of this is Hannah, one of the director/shareholders, was a school leaver when she joined BSN and worked her way to director over a period of 12 years.

Working Environment

One huge benefit of an independent firm is that your team is more close knit which makes job planning much easier, you can have a direct influence on requesting jobs that are closer to home and that you may have an interest in.

In a larger firm you can sometime find yourself being dictated to where you are going or what you will specialise in. You may also have to work away for long stretches of time, which can help to collect lots of hotel points and air miles but can have an impact on your personal life.

We pride ourselves on working together with our teams, listening and taking on board suggestions.  (e.g. one employee asked me if we could get a new coffee machine, it was ordered and came in the next day).

Overall, the larger firms have many positive points including the training they offer which is second to none, especially around softer skills and how to develop excellent networks. However, you can find yourself pigeon holed into a niche and struggling through your exams which may have no relevance to your day job.

Don't underestimate the attraction of the smaller, independent firm that can really kick-start your career and give you a detailed working knowledge of all areas needed to become a fully rounded chartered accountant.